研究發現30歲嫉妒心最強 50歲後嫉妒心減弱

Older women have often been portrayed as green-eyed monsters, envying the young and hankering after their own lost looks.

年紀大的女人通常都被描述成愛嫉妒的人，她們嫉妒年輕女子，渴望擁有自己曾經的姣好容貌。

But it is actually the young who are the most jealous of each other, envious of their friends’ appearances, relationships, and social success, a new study has revealed.

事實上，新研究揭示，年輕人最愛嫉妒彼此，他們會嫉妒朋友的容顏、愛情和社交的成功。

It also appears that both men and women are more likely to envy someone who is approximately their own age and of the same gender.

還有一種現象，不管男人還是女人都更傾向於嫉妒那些跟他們年紀相當以及同性別的人。

The research was carried out by psychology professor Christine Harris and graduate student Nicole Henniger from the University of California, San Diego and is published in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology.

這項研究由聖地亞哥加利福尼亞大學的心理學教授克莉絲汀.哈里斯以及研究生妮可.亨尼希共同實施執行，並發表在《基礎研究和應用社會心理學》這份期刊上。

The paper covers two studies: one that surveyed more than 900 people aged 18 to 80 on their own experiences of being envious, and another that asked 800 more in the same age range to remember when they had been the targets of envy.

這篇論文包含了兩個研究：一個是調查九百多名18歲至80歲的人關於自身嫉妒的經歷，另外一個研究是訪問另外八百名同齡的人，讓他們回憶自己什麼時候成爲被嫉妒的對象。

Envy was a common experience. More than three quarters of the participants reported experiencing envy in the last year, with slightly more women (79.4 percent) than men (74.1 percent).

嫉妒是一種常見的經歷。據研究報告，超過四分之三的調查參與者在最近的一年裏嫉妒過別人，而其中女性產生嫉妒的比例爲79.4%，超過男性產生嫉妒的比例，後者爲74.1%。

But they found that the experience declined with age.

但是他們發現這種經歷會隨着年齡的增長而下降。

Around 80 percent of people younger than 30 reported feeling envious in the last year. However, for those aged 50 and over, that figure went down to 69 percent.

據研究報告，在過去的一年裏，年紀低於30歲的人羣中有80%左右經歷了嫉妒，然而，對於年紀超過50歲的人來說，這個比例降到了69%。

Overwhelmingly, people envied others of their own gender.

人們絕大多數是對同性的嫉妒。

’It surprised us how consistently men envied other men and women, women,’ continued Professor Harris.

“男性嫉妒其他男性，而女性則嫉妒其他女性，這種高度的一致性讓我們驚訝。”哈里斯教授說道。

Even in domains like financial and occupational success, where you can imagine that a woman might envy a man his better pay or status, that wasn’t usually the case.’Also, people most often direct their envy at similarly aged others - within about five years of their own age.

“即使是在諸如金融和職業成功的領域裏，你想象到的是一個女性可能會嫉妒一個男性有更高的薪資和更高的地位，但通常情況並不是這樣。”同樣，人們最經常將嫉妒的矛頭指向年齡相近的人——與他們的年齡相差在5歲之內的人。

The researchers found that what people envied also changed with g people said they felt most envious over looks and romance as well as achievement at school and social success, with 40 percent of participants under 30 said they envied others for their success in fewer than 15 percent of those over 50 said the same.

研究發現人們所嫉妒的事物也隨着他們的年紀的變化而改變。年輕人說他們最嫉妒的是外貌、戀愛史以及在學校和社會上取得的成功，其中30歲以下的參與者中有40%的人說他們嫉妒他人戀愛的成功。但是在超過50歲的受訪者中只有不到15%的人說他們嫉妒的是這類事物。

’Envy of monetary success and occupational success was common across all age groups,’ the coauthors write, ’but these two domains were unique in being more often envied by older people.’

“對於金錢成功和職業成功的嫉妒是各個年齡羣體中都很常見的，”筆者寫道，“但是這兩個方面獨特之處在於，年長的人更容易因此嫉妒。”

Elsewhere, the research found that people are more likely to be jealous of their friends than their family - perhaps because the success of these people is more cause for happiness and pride than envy.

研究還發現相比於家人，人們更容易嫉妒朋友，或許是因爲家人的成功帶來的更多是開心與驕傲，而非嫉妒。

The researchers could not determine whether the differences observed with age are due to changes over the lifespan or differences among generations.’My hunch, though,’ Professor Harris said, ’is that the hold envy has on people diminishes with time. My guess is that it’s good news about aging.’

研究者不知道這些在不同年齡人羣觀察到的差異是由於年歲增長帶來的改變還是年代的不同。“但是我的預感是人們所持有的嫉妒感會隨着時間的流逝而減少，” 哈里斯教授說，“我想這倒是一個關於變老的好消息。”